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Nature Study for the 1st time – Is this right?
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On another thread I saw a post for the Handbook of Nature Study blog. Wow! I’m overwhelmed, but reading what others have done helped me. So, we tried it for the first time today. I’m hoping this is how it is supposed to be done.
I let my DD choose any tree in our yard. We observed it and learned the parts of the tree. (I even learned the term ‘spray’. BTW, is it ‘spray’ or ‘sprays’ for plural?) She felt and smelled the bark and leaves. We need to get a magnifying glass to observe much more closely. After lunch she drew and colored a tree and labeled the parts. I also took a photo of the bark, a leaf, and the whole tree for reference, and we are going to press a leaf for her nature journal.
Is this how we are supposed to do nature study?
Sounds fantastic to me! Probably more than we do most times… lol
I’m sure I had mentioned it on that other thread – but the books “Wild Days” by Karen Racliffe and “Pocketful of Pinecones” by Karen Andreola are great for getting the feel for nature study.
Sounds like a great start:) Remember to go back to that same tree during different seasons and notice how it changes. If it is an evergreen or deciduos etc.. Lots of fun this journey isn’t it?!
Nice work. I would have done the outside and forgot to do the inside things you mentioned. Pocketfull of Pinecones wasww a great 1st read for me starting out, got it at the library. A simple read also. I highly suggest it.
I love this idea!!
I have to say, we’ve just started with CM methods and Nature Study is something that I have made sure to do every week but I have my husband take the girls. Now, we’re outside allllll the time. But, this is kind of his “thing”. He just naturally sees things I miss and knows so much more about than I do. Plus it helps get him involved in the homeschooling, which he really wanted to do. And in the end, the girls come back and give me a bit-by-bit description of every single thing they saw/did/learned about, so it’s a fantastic narrative that I witness. They can hardly wait to come back and tell me all about it 🙂
BUT, the most interesting thing that happened with our family was simply that my oldest daughter (7) took along her little camera with her on one of their many hikes through the woods. The little stinker actually snuck it in the bag–I had told her no 😉 However, this turned out to be one of the neatest experiences for her b/c she not only draws/writes in her notebook, she was taking pictures of things we hadn’t even noticed. It has been really fun seeing the nature hikes according to DD. I struggled with this one…..but I realized she was actually just doing more, so I let it be a non-issue. Especially when she collected a bunch of the pictures and created a booklet for herself of “Favorite Leaves” this led to identifying which plant/tree they were from,etc, and so in the end, it all worked out 🙂 She enjoys looking for more favorites each time she goes out, even. I just thank CM for the encourgement to even try something like this!
I think you’re doing a great job!!
It was great!!! That was a stellar nature study day. I don’t think all days need to be that good – saying that to take the pressure off of you. Some days they may just draw what they see and not have any sort of lesson at all. Your first nature study day was a great beginning!!!
The Pocketful of Pinecones is a wonderful book on how it goes day by day. Plus it’s just an enjoyable read.
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